MKG has been crushing the offensive boards lately, and he helped generate some second-chance points and easy scoring opportunities again tonight. His defensive rotations were a little off tonight, but he gave just enough on offense to help balance that out.

Kemba’s has seemed allergic to the paint recently, and just one of his attempts tonight came within 20 feet. A lot of that has to do with the solid defense from Brooklyn, but settling for long jumpers still hurts. On the plus side, Walker’s passing has been sharp, as he’s averaging 7.7 assists over the last 10 games.

This might have been Zeller’s most impressive game, at least as far as the highlight reel. Eight of his 10 points came on his points came on emphatic dunks, including a sweet alley-oop from Chris Douglas-Roberts and a putback slam. In the long term, Zeller will still need to develop his jumpshot, but his recent focus near the basket has helped his productivity.

The rebounds are nice, his three fouls less so. It was an issue for the whole team tonight, as the Nets went to the stripe 35 times compared to 12 for the Bobcats. The team is typically very good at avoiding fouls, and with the margin for error so thin, it more or less lost them the game.

He didn’t score much, but he kept things lively and avoided any turnovers tonight. It’s what the team needs from him, especially with Gary Neal and Chris Douglas-Roberts providing excellent bench offense.

Neal has been throwing flames since he got to Charlotte, scoring 13 points a game on 48 percent shooting, 53 percent from three and 97 percent from the line. Clifford trusts Neal enough to play him down the stretch, and that nearly paid off tonight. 12 of Neal’s 17 points came in the final quarter, on 3-of-5 shooting from downtown.

CDR has been a nice spark off the bench, especially with his three-point shooting. It’s unfortunate that Anthony Tolliver has mostly been squeezed out as a result, but Douglas-Roberts brings more versatile, dynamic play on offense and some needed speed on defense.

One Thing We Saw

A loss is disappointing, but the effort wasn’t. On the road, playing their third game in four nights against an evenly matched opponent, the Bobcats took the Nets to the very brink. They’ll get a shot at revenge next Wednesday.